md_green_gardenerwikiaorg-20200214-history
Help:Ways to Green Your Garden
Thank you for being here and looking into new ways to make your yard or garden a healthier part of Maryland's ecosystem! The more of us can do just a little bit more, the better off we'll all be. Intended Audience This article is intended to help folks who are either new to thinking about gardening in ways to help the environment, or for people who are already doing some things, but want to explore more ways they can green their gardens and yards. If you're new to having a yard or garden, or have never taken care of one yourself before but would like to start, or even if you're able to do much of hands-on work but want to develop a framework for assessing what you've got and planning what others can help with, we recommend you start at the New to Gardening help page. Explore Ways to Green Your Garden There are so many things you can do to help. Here's a list with brief introductions. As this wiki is built out, we hope each will link to a page with more information, pertinent research, and links to other resources to help you. Please remember that it can be hard to do any of these things - even for a small part of your yard or garden. Pace yourself. You will do more good if you do not overwhelm yourself into burning out your enthusiasm. Planting native plants to have a lower-maintenance garden that can fight extinctions and bolster the ecosystem Details to come on Why to Plant Natives. Removing harmful invasive plants that can spread beyond your garden and damage natural areas Details to come on Why to Remove Invasives. Composting to cut down on trash and create your own fertilizer Details to come on Composting. Using plants to clean up lead and other pollutants through phytoremediation Details to come on Phytoremediation. Ditching problematic herbicides and pesticides Details to come on Herbicides and Pesticides. Creating rain gardens for helping control runoff problems Details to come on Rain Gardens . Collecting what you need to water your plants with rain barrels Details to come on Rain Barrells. Limiting mulch use through working toward "green mulch" Details to come on Limiting Mulch Use and Green Mulch. Creating a pollinator garden Details to come on Pollinator Gardening . Leaving your leaves where they fall, and other "clean up" the ecosystem would prefer you not do Details to come on Leaving Leaves . Animal habitat gardens Details to come on Gardening for Wildlife Interest . Lawn replacement: stop mowing and help the environment Details to come on Lawn Replacement . Supporting organizations with green goals doing good work in Maryland and beyond Details to come on Organizations of Note (note before you start this page: it should probably be a category page that automatically generates a list entry whenever an article on such an org is created). Learning more Details to come on Research (create category) and Recommended Reading (create category). This list is growing, and you can add to it If you know something that isn't already listed above, add to it! This resource was created as a Wikia so that we can all participate in making it better. You can learn more about how to add to it on the page.